MOUNT HEALTHY, Ohio — For hundreds if not thousands of years, communal spaces to grow food meant camaraderie, comfort and sustainability. Now, an organization here in Greater Cincinnati wants to bring that back.
The Common Orchard Project, part of Green Umbrella, has 30 orchards in our area with plans to build ten a year until they reach 100.
"We're trying to put it into production for community. So, like a lot of people can eat from a fruit tree, you don't need many fruits yourself from one tree. So why don't we plant some fruit trees and get a bunch of people together to enjoy that?" said Chris Smyth, the director of the project.
"Really, we're trying to reactivate unused or vacant spaces. Maybe a lawn next to a church or a field next to a community garden."
Smyth said that in five to seven years, they should be producing around 1,000 pounds of food.
"I would say it's a really high return. But it takes patience. And if we're investing in our places, like we're all going to be here in five years, like let's invest in it, plant fruit trees, and keep showing up each year."
One orchard is growing in Mount Healthy's Tikkun Farm. They already planted fruit trees, but the project came and added more. Staff at the farm are learning how to better care for the trees.
"So it's good to bring the networks together and connect people in the environmental community to share knowledge," said Isabelle Booker. She is the urban farming instructor for the job training program at Tikkun Farm. She is also now the orchard steward.
Booker said, "This year, I really hoped to focus on bringing the fruit to a free market, where we have shoppers come three times a week, and then being able to have access to produce that was locally grown here on site.
Smyth said that is another part of the process.
"We're also trying to help people who've had the good intention to start fruit trees to kind of come alongside guide and mentor them and to how to better care for these trees."
At Tikkun Farm the orchard, and the fruit borne from it in the coming years just means they can give back even more to neighbors.
"Creation care is what we consider all of this, which means healing the land," said Booker. "So being able to educate people and get them involved in the service projects that we do around here weekly, is how we keep this sustainable."
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